“Summersweet” is the common name for Clethra alnifolia. It’s relatively small shrub that likes swampy areas but will grow in a wide variety of environments. They’re abundant in the swampy areas along my main route to and from work. They’re in flower now and the aroma is great – very rich perfumy. (The origin of “summersweet” is apparent.) I put the windows down when I drive by to take it in.
“I do not believe we are. I believe we are simply the children of two generations of Americans who dared to hope that resources were limitless and that we, as Americans, could do no wrong. I believe we are gradually learning that our parents and grandparents dream was wonderful; yet unrealistic.
I believe we are rapidly learning that we must live in balance with all the other forms of life on our planet; because to do otherwise dooms many of us as well as many of them. I also believe that beyond our daily needs and concerns we deeply love the beauty and the majesty of the world on which we live. We want that beauty and majesty to continue to live & prosper just as we want ourselves to continue to live & prosper.
In the past one hundred years Americans have had an almost unbelievable impact on the lives of all human beings. National Parks, automobiles, airplanes, hydroelectric power, electric power, television, nuclear power, interstate highways, computers, the internet, wind power. All of this and much more is our legacy & our contribution to mankind.
A line in an old movie I very much like goes something like this: “Act as though you have faith and faith will be given to you.” We can begin acting with a faith in our ability to positively change our impact on the planet, and that ability will be given to us.
We can dedicate the energy we devoted to those past accomplishments toward the creation of a society that lives in harmony with the natural world. In doing so we can make remarkable contributions toward improving the impact our entire species has on this planet and all its forms of life.”
Excerpts from John Smelser’s post on the Missouri Botanical Garden website, A Personal View on Sustainable Gardening and Going Green:
Compost or mulch-mow lawn clippings
Americans toss approximately 32-36 million TONS of lawn clippings into landfills during the course of a single growing season. We do this even though lawn clippings are a terrific source of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium; fertilizer elements essential to the maintenance of a healthy lawn… You can save a great deal of money and a great deal of space in your landfill by throwing all those lawn clippings into a compost pile instead of the garbage. If you don’t want to manage a compost pile, you can use a mulching mower to shred the material finely enough to leave in the lawn itself… Using a mulching mower would amount to applying hundreds of pounds of fertilizer-rich material to your lawn each growing season… Contrary to all those myths you have heard, the immediate recycling of lawn clippings into the lawn itself does not contribute to thatch. Lawn clippings consist of 75% water content. They decompose readily and add nothing more than nutrients to the soil. Thatch is a build-up of shoots and stems and, in some cases, roots; not grass clippings.
Ezra Klein takes the words right out of my mouth:
I’m a climate pessimist. I don’t believe the United States — or the world — will do nearly enough, nearly fast enough, to hold the rise in temperatures to safe levels. I think we’re fucked. Or, at the least, I think our grandchildren are fucked.
From Alexandra Morris, Summertime Blues: Pesticide-Laden Strawberries And Your Health:
Homeowners use up to 10 times more pesticides (including chemicals like Roundup, but that’s another story) per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The other day I was given a copy of Zadie Smith’s recent essay in the New York Review of Books. Reading it, it felt complementary to the story in the NY Times Magazine last weekend on Paul Kingsnorth and The Dark Mountain Project. I initially thought I’d just post a link in next week’s Weekly Digest or perhaps quote few paragraphs in a dedicated post. On further thought neither seemed right though. Links without context are easy to ignore and I wouldn’t to justice to Smith by excerpting her work. Here’s the full essay. (The following link takes you to the original on the NYRB website.)
Elegy for a Country’s Seasons:
There is the scientific and ideological language for what is happening to the weather, but there are hardly any intimate words. Is that surprising? People in mourning tend to use euphemism; likewise the guilty and ashamed. The most melancholy of all the euphemisms: “The new normal.” “It’s the new normal,” I think, as a beloved pear tree, half-drowned, loses its grip on the earth and falls over. The train line to Cornwall washes away—the new normal. We can’t even say the word “abnormal” to each other out loud: it reminds us of what came before. Better to forget what once was normal, the way season followed season, with a temperate charm only the poets appreciated.
Twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much, or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse. No more can it be dismissed as science fiction; we are already feeling the effects.
This is why, no matter where you live, it is appalling that the US is debating whether to approve a massive pipeline transporting 830,000 barrels of the world’s dirtiest oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Producing and transporting this quantity of oil, via the Keystone XL pipeline, could increase Canada’s carbon emissions by over 30%.
If the negative impacts of the pipeline would affect only Canada and the US, we could say good luck to them. But it will affect the whole world, our shared world, the only world we have. We don’t have much time.
This week in Berlin, scientists and public representatives have been weighing up radical options for curbing emissions contained in the third report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The bottom line is that we have 15 years to take the necessary steps. The horse may not have bolted, but it’s well on its way through the stable door.
Who can stop it? Well, we can, you and I. And it is not just that we can stop it, we have a responsibility to do so. It is a responsibility that begins with God commanding the first human inhabitants of the garden of Eden “to till it and keep it“. To keep it; not to abuse it, not to destroy it.
The emerald ash borer was discovered in western MA a couple years ago. It’s disappointing but no big surprise that it’s been discovered in eastern MA. Details of the Essex County quarantine via the Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Association (links added):
Following the discovery of emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis, “EAB”) this past fall in North Andover, MA, Officials from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) have announced that a quarantine will be established in Essex County beginning April 1, 2014.
Emerald ash borer is an invasive wood-boring pest that attacks ash trees. It is responsible for the death and decline of tens of millions of ash throughout the US. Federal authorities have determined that while eradication of EAB is not feasible, quarantine is an important step in slowing the spread of this pest, allowing communities to prepare in advance and make the best decisions about how to manage ash trees before they are impacted.
The quarantine order means that certain products will be restricted from moving outside the regulated area, including all hardwood firewood (any piece of wood smaller than 48″), all ash nursery stock, and any ash lumber that has not been treated. Proper wood treatments include the removal of bark and half an inch of wood, dry kiln sterilization, fumigation, and heat treatments.
Readings:
Time for spring.